Alchemy432
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Alchemy432
Participantnice, will check it out now
Participantas for damage, ringing after one gig that goes away. imagine a wheat field, or field full of long grass. we have something similar inside our ears, every stalk of grass picks up a different frequency from the 20hz – 20khz range. when we hear that ringing, its the same as if a powerful storm had blown through the field overnight, pushing all the grass/wheat down to the ground, when our ears recover and the ringing goes away, its because those grass/wheat stalks, have ‘stood up’ again. unbent themselves. if you get perminant damage, those wheat/grass stalks have snapped and then they’re gone forever. they don’t grow back. the reason you hear a ‘tone’ when a group of these stalks are touching the ground, is because thats the mechanism used to send the electric signals to our brains to tell our brains that we are hearing something.
sound goes in the ear, the shape of the ear directs the sound toward the eardrum, in the right way, for different frequencies. the eardrum (thin skin membrane) takes the alternating pressure of the soundwave and reduces the intensity of this wave, reproducing it on the other side of the eardrum as a smaller, less intense, less disruptive wave, like turning down the volume on your sound system. eventually these pressure waves reach the sillia (? – I forget the exact word) hairs – i.e. the fields of grass, that respond only to the frequencies that relate to each patch of grass. they respond by flatting/bending so the tip of the grass touches the ground its coming out of, this in turn sends a corresponding electrical signal to the brain and so on.
when people get hearing loss, especially those with a long history of working in call centres, what they actually lose are the hairs that relate to the sibillance (? I forget the exact word) range – i.e. the frequencies that carry the ‘Puh Kuh Tah Sss, etc’ sounds that we make when we talk, and also sometimes the phone range of frequencies 800hz-2khz and in particular 1.25khz. without the transient ‘puh kuh, etc’ sounds it becomes difficult – impossible to hear when one word ends and another starts as people are talking to you, it begins so sound like a blurred out slurring together of what once was a sentence. this is the most common form of hearing loss, and it effects our abilities to hear speech, but not so much affecting our abilities to hear music, which is also why its often not noticed straight away.
if your ears are bleeding, you’ve ruptured the eardrum, unlike the sillia (?) hairs, your eardrum can heal itself though.
Peace.
Participantnot sure if its been mentioned but noise cancelling earbuds. you can get them custom built/fitted to your ears too, I *believe* you can also get them built to allow some frequencies more than others, I’m sure with a bit of trial and error it would be possible to dj while wearing them
ParticipantAlright mate,
first you have to choose a DAW. you can find ‘demo’ videos on youtube. Or, look up what your favourite producer/artist uses and give that a try or select one of the ones I mentioned earlier.
The only videos I know about that offer anything similar to what you’re looking for, step by step tutorial of how to actually operate the software come from https://www.askvideo.com/
the ones I’ve seen and used are – absynth, cubase, melodyne and reason.
They are boring but informative and step by step of the program, from the absolute basics, to more advanced stuff when you’re ready. I’ve never had to buy them as a friend of mine already had and lent me his copies so I don’t know of the costs involved or if there’s any realtime or real human support to go with the videos.
Once you’re familiar with the operation of the DAW, I stand by what I said earlier regarding youtube videos.
look for “how to create a _______ using ____” replacing the blanks with the sound you want, and the daw you use. e.g. “how to create a wobble bassline using reason” you WILL find several different methods of creating that bassline, and LEARN very quickly through actually DOING things, how to achieve what you want to.
as for music production tutorials and tips, again, youtube, again, producers that you like, but to be more specific:
Computer Music Magazine – Producer Masterclass Series
Future Music Magazine – Producers In The Studio
Boy In A Band TutorialsHonestly, thats all you need right there.
As for reading the manual and documentation that comes with your DAW, no one expects anyone to read those things in there entirety, instead what you do is wait till your presented with a problem e.g. “how do I save my project?” then you open the help/manual and search for your question, read the results. I still have to refer to the manual every once in a while and I’ve been doing this for 10+ years now. Also, if you can’t find the answers to your specific questions in the manual, its probably a case of having worded it wrong due to not knowing correct terminology for e.g. “how do I get my song out of my DAW?” the real question is “how do I export/render my song?” and in these cases, google is your friend.
Final place I can recommend exploring for quality information, the official websites of the software you buy. Steinberg, Propellerheads, Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, etc. They almost always have their own step by step videos on how to use their software because its just the way tutorials are done nowadays.
I hope that helps, but I want to encourage you also to do some research of your own, do some searches, make some notes and most importantly, start. don’t be afraid to stuff about and experiment whilst not knowing what you’re doing, that’s how you do things no ones ever thought of before, that’s how you create your OWN style and become an interesting producer in an over-saturated paint by numbers industry.
Whether you like the song/artist or not, “Rusko – Woo Boost” was made before he knew anything whatsoever about anything, using acid pro (avoid this daw) a drum loop, a bassline loop, and pitch shifting. no midi, no vst, no piano-keyboard with which to play melodies, no music theory knowledge. he simply pasted the bass loop out several times, then pressed the + & – buttons on the keyboard to shift the pitch of the notes up and down until he had a melody he liked. simple as F… and that song was pretty massive all things considered.
I wish you the best of luck,
Peace.
June 2, 2014 at 5:08 pm in reply to: MK-Ultra – Emerging Ibiza 2014 DJ Competition Mix (Funky & Disco House) #2035436ParticipantYour civil and respectful reply has prompted me to return to the conversation and I commend you for it.
when you say cultural consequences I think of subliminal advertising, soulless corporate marketing techniques, and the negative effects they have on western society.. and now other nations who seek to ‘do the west, better than the west do’ as if our ‘western’ ways are flawless and perfect… which they are not, not at all. plenty of flaws everywhere. unfortunate thing to want to emulate… or perhaps more accurately, it seems that different nations are emulating the negative aspects of other nations ‘ways’ more so than the positive ones.
also I think of things that have been shown to induce trance like behavior which are sprinkled throughout music videos etc, I won’t go into detail but I think you know the kind of things I’m referring too. someone once said that “advertising is the respectable.. no, the socially acceptable face of mind control” again I think you know what I’m getting at.
when you say political consequences, well I think of a certain politician in power around 30 yrs back who was forced to partially admit to the programs we’ve been talking of, and make statements to the effect that these programs had been stopped.. but its also public knowledge that these programs existed prior too and were “stopped” long before mk-ultra.. one way to put it is that they likely got ‘re-branded’ so to speak, and continue to be ‘re-branded’ as well as different techniques being adopted by groups from a wide range of industries.
As for consequences for the politicians in power at that time, well I thought that there weren’t any, and it was just “business as usual” following the press releases/statements etc, but perhaps this could be reasoned to be due to what I understand was an almost non-existent authority over said programs by the governments of the countries… but perhaps I have my details wrong.
so I am probably misunderstanding what you meant by political and cultural consequences because I can only seem to see the negative ones.
you hit the nail on the head with the context thing, the ‘idolization’ aspect from the audience, and the ‘social responsibility’ aspect from the artist is what was bothering me, but you eloquently put it into the words I couldn’t seem to find.
what I didn’t explain and to give some context of my own, was that I myself chose an offensive dj name back when I was a conspiracy theorizing teenager myself (eerily similar…) it was distasteful, offensive and insensitive, not quite as bad as dj holocaust.. but pretty damn close, certainly more offensive to a wider group of people then the name mk-ultra. Unfortunately the name still has the potential to affect my future career in the music industry in a negative way despite it being something I ran with for only a brief time as a somewhat thoughtless teenager with a background in punk music and the attitudes that came with it (ironic that you earlier called me a punk, as I literally did used to be one). I guess mistakes are how we learn and all I can do on a personal level is to think ‘such is life’ and hope for the best.
Point is, when I read your thread here, it hit a nerve and if I’d seen your thread 2 years ago I’d probably have thought nothing of it, but as I’m reflecting on my own happenings, I seem to be noticing things of similarity and (over?)reacting to them…
as for your own name, I commend your efforts to try to turn it into, and keep it as, a positive ‘promoting awareness’ type thing, I believe social responsibility of artists is all well and good but has its limits, and we the artists can only do so much.
I’m also realistic enough to understand that everyone has bills to pay and needs to eat, so I’m not suggesting for you to suddenly change your name and wreck an established following or career, we only have so many years in life and rebuilding an ‘identity’ in the dj world or the music industry at large, can take a long time.
Finally, something I’m beginning to realize only this year is that judgements are often misplaced, knee jerk reactions caused by a fearful lack of understanding; and that none of us are saints, we can only do the best that we can do.
so now that I’m in a clearer state of mind and regardless of everything we talked about thus far, I wish you the best of luck with your career, and I appreciate your thoughtfulness both in this conversation and the efforts you’ve made in a personal/business context 🙂
Peace.
June 2, 2014 at 10:50 am in reply to: MK-Ultra – Emerging Ibiza 2014 DJ Competition Mix (Funky & Disco House) #2035393Participantnevermind, you’ve already inadvertantly answered my questions on the auralcandy.net facebook page:
“When I chose the name MK-Ultra I was a teenage kid with a passion for conspiracy theories. I’m now on my thirties and I’ve seen several of those conspiracy theories become reality. I’m fortunate to live in a place where such matters don’t directly affect my life, but that’s not to say they won’t some day. Therefore the name acts a reminder why it is important to always remain skeptical towards authority.
Is any of this related to house music and being a DJ? Not as such, but there’s no harm in educating people while entertaining them”
you’re intentions may be good, but as for educating your listeners, I have a different viewpoint to yours on the effectiveness of your methods, which I’ll keep to myself to avoid further stupid and unnecessary conflict.
as far as I’m concerned this conversation is over.
Peace.
June 2, 2014 at 10:24 am in reply to: MK-Ultra – Emerging Ibiza 2014 DJ Competition Mix (Funky & Disco House) #2035390Participantactually, calling the dj a douchebag was rude and unnecessary for which I apologize. maybe its just a case of ignorance or lack of empathy…
Peace.
June 2, 2014 at 10:18 am in reply to: MK-Ultra – Emerging Ibiza 2014 DJ Competition Mix (Funky & Disco House) #2035389Participantlol, u angry bro?
Alchemy isn’t my dj name, its a pursuit i’m fond of which I picked as a screen name for this forum.
hmm concrete and constructive. ok. choosing to name yourself after a once secret u.s military/cia program that researched mind control techniques and the possibilities of said techniques is distasteful… at least for those who know a little about the history of mk-ultra. there is nothing positive about it whatsoever, its referencing something entirely negative and some would go so far to say is evil. furthermore why name yourself after something you know nothing about, unless of course the dj did know what it was about and chose it anyway, in which case, wow what a douchebag. if the dj was producing the filthiest nastiest breakcore or dubstep he could then distasteful names could be the right way to go, but funk flavoured house music? doesn’t really mesh in my humble opinion.
so thats my personal opinion, which I’m entitled to whether you like it or agree with it.
as for constructive, how about literally anything that isn’t negative as hell? its meant to be a party after all is it not?
If I want to tap into aggression and depression I’ll listen to breakcore/dubstep, metal or blues.
make sense?
Participantif anyone’s into anime, I just started watching attack on titan. it is dope as hell & hellishly dope.
Participantone other thing, when you’ve been doing this for a long time, and think you know everything you need to know, soundonsound magazine’s online website tutorials will show you that there’s a hell of a lot more you could learn…
Participant@rizki,
lol, cheers bud 🙂would prob have to adhere to traditional methods for that tho to avoid flaming and general hatred from “real” producers.. the ones with qualifications and limitless cash resources… and I’m an eccentric weirdo who does things like singing into an empty coffee cup and recording that to get different reverb/filter fx… so prob many of my methods wouldn’t fly with many ppl 😛
I’m releasing a few albums over this year and the next.. my first commercial releases.. if they do well then I’ll kno for sure that my crazy methods are sound & effective.. 😉
Participantalso, if your pc can handle it, only ever work in 24bit or higher, 41k sample rate. only render out your main stereo output as a 24bit or higher wav. if you need to convert to mp3 or acc (aac?) to upload to a website, render from the daw as 24bit+ wav first and convert after.
also regarding ASIO, if you have firewire, use it. buy an ASIO audio interface that uses firewire to connect. if you only have usb, then avoid the mbox series of interfaces. I recently upgraded from an mboxmini2 usb to a sapphire pro 24 firewire.
firewire can handle more simultaneous channels of audio then usb. ssd drives, ram & processor speed all contribute to how fast your daw can access data for the vst, instruments etc. clipping, distortion, audio drop outs & stuttering are all the result of too much strain on your pc and ASIO device.
if I think of anything else I’ll b back to post again..
Peace.
Participantallo there,
get some free/demo versions of digital audio workstations i.e. DAW’s. this is your canvas, this is the program which you do EVERYTHING in. Ableton & Fruity loops approach music creation differently but are common DAWs to start with, however ‘propellerheads reason’ is what I personally used and still use occasionally, it is far more visually obvious in reason how to patch instruments to effects to the mixer etc then in other DAWs, once you get your head around this in reason you can apply that knowledge to any other DAW.
If you get good enough with any of the above mentioned you many never need to ‘upgrade’ to more advanced wares…
but if you’ve been at it for 5 years and finding a noticable difference in the production quality (sound quality & mix quality) of your songs, an upgrade to ‘pro logic’ or ‘cubase’ might be just the thing you need. I use cubase personally. all the above are (now) capable of recording & working with audio, and also working with ‘midi’ recordings from devices such as drum pads or midi keyboards. every single synth or multisampler in you DAW will run using midi. there is always a window called a ‘piano roll’ in your DAW which is where you edit, paste or record midi notes and other midi information in which your synth will read in order to know what to play back.
also I personally would avoid sony acid pro or digidesign protools… at all costs…
when you get fx i.e. – equalizer, compressor, reverb, delay, echo, flanger, phaser, vibrato, distortion, limiter, multiband compressor/limiter, gate, filter
OR when you get virtual sound instruments i.e. VSTs, like waveform synthesisers, grainular synthesisers, multisamplers, etc they will typically come in the form of ‘plugins’ that you install to a common directory on you pc which any and all of your DAWs read and access to bring those plugins into the DAW which is where you use them.
the folder is typically “vstplugins” and most plugins install to that folder by default.
most DAWs know to look for it too.Familiarise yourself with every single one of the above listed devices in the “fx” category. You cannot produce good music until you know exactly what each of those things do – eq, compressor, reverb, etc. they are the herbs and spices that turn your cooked chicken into something delicious. this step is essential.
if you PC is of limited power i.e. ‘slow’ use the inbuilt fx and vsts that come with whatever DAW you choose first and stick with those, they are designed to run fast and use less resources.
If you pc is a beast from the 72nd dimension, then here’s what I reccomend, though if you can’t use every default/stock plugin available in your chosen DAW, learn those first or you won’t know what to do with these –
Synth & Drum Machines –
omnisphere (most powerful synth at time of release, multi sample and multi oscillate, grain/waveform more or less everything at the same time)
stylusrmx (drums and chaos)
trillion (bass bass bass bass)
Abysynth (complex synth similar to omnisphere)
u-he zebra (great for sequences and gated melodies)
addictive drums (drums obvi)
toontrack drummer (also drums)MultiSamplers-
With multi-samplers the device itself is mostly irrelevant, you choose a multisampler based on the libraries available and the sounds you actually want to use. be warned though, these chew up pc resources like nothing else, literally these will destroy top level ‘gaming’ pcs.Best service engine and packs.
garritan ARIA engine & packs
Camel audio alchemy engine & packs
east west quantum leap packs – avail. for kontakt & other samplers.
Gigasampler packs & the soundlib g-player.You can use the latest version of ‘kontakt’ for many sample packs and libraries from many different companies. There are some great free sample packs/instruments for kontakt out there, google search & join some forums.
Finally and probably the most important are ‘fx’ & processing units –
2Caudio reverbs
Ampeg or Gutarrig or Amplitude – amp simulators & fx chains emulated from a live guitarist/bassist setup, good for anything
sound toys series of devices
anything by ‘waves’ the masarati series in particular
voxengo span, fab filter, etc
sugarbytes effectrix
izotope trash
melodynealso note, learn how to automate. every daw can do it. this is how you create fancy effects & sounds. learn what an lfo does and use it all the time until you don’t have to guess about anything anymore. experiment all the time, experiment with everything.
fx/processors, all can be used creatively but not all are designed for that, some for creative sound modulation, others are more for production/mastering, i.e. preparing your tune for consumption by the outside world.
typically – flange, chorus, delay, echo, phaser, distortion, vibrato, stutter, filter, are meant to creatively modulate,
whereas – reverb, compression, noise gate, eq, limiter, pan are for mix production & mastering.start with midi triggered vst and only venture into audio when you have something to record, tho this depends on the genres of music you want to produce. if its hip hop, and you’re a purist, you’ll only use audio. you’ll record samples from vinyl into your daw, and rearrange the clips manually to make a beat, this is a nice way to get used to working with audio. if on the other hand you’re a trance head, its midi and vst all the way. combining both audio and midi is the best way to go and the most liberating, i.e. audio drum loop + midi triggered vst.
the better your stereo speakers the more clarity in your mix, the easier it is to create a good and balanced mix that will sound good whether heard on your elite studio speakers, or a fans shitty ipod earbuds. you want your songs to sound great across as many different kinds of speakers/headphones/earbuds as possible. if aiming for radio airplay, learn about radio bandwidth limitations, make sure your song sounds good in stereo and mono. if aiming to only have your music sound good in clubs and played by djs, its a bit less stuffing about.
if you can’t afford great studio quality monitoring speakers, but have access to a few pairs of decent home entertainment quality speakers, then pay for a quality pair of headphones, I use seinheiser 256s due to the price to quality factor, but there are better more expensive options. use headphones when working on spatial stuff like panning, don’t have everything in the center pan position, spread stuff around the ‘space’. use every speaker and headphone available at your disposal for getting the compression and levels right across the bandwidth (bandwidth = the audible frequency range = 20hz to 20khz) learn what hz boost what sounds, for e.g. 1.25khz, 3000hz, 800hz, 5000khz can all bring the vocals forward in a mix, make them stand out, this is what the eq is for.
as for beast pc’s, I hate mac, will never use mac so if you are a mac fanboy I can’t help ya. but as for pc, you want an i7, you NEED an ASIO audio interface (external soundcard) you need at least 4gb ram, but the more the merrier. if you use mechanical internal harddrives you will struggle to have more then a handful of the more powerful/resource hogging multisamplers and vst running at the same time, and using ssd drives is preferable. back up your work to an external drive in case the ssd’s or your pc itself crashes, back up regularly.
as for tutorials, do some research into the daws avail. choose one, then youtube tutorials that will get you familiar with the daw itself, its features and the basics of how to use each component. once you learn one daw inside and out, its a much faster process learning any of the others, most do the exact same things, but in different ways, and with stock plugins of different quality (note:reason can’t use 3rd party plugins at all, fruity and ableton can) find which works best for you.
once you’ve done that, you’ll be making your own tunes and need to then learn about production/mixing/mastering. again youtube is your friend here, look up artists/producers from the genre you’re working in whose music u love and style you want to emulate, its likely they will have their own production tips & tutorial videos for you to watch, for e.g. mistabishi, noisia and brooks brothers all have production tips & tricks tutorial videos for those wishing to do dnb.
GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!!!
Peace.
June 2, 2014 at 8:29 am in reply to: MK-Ultra – Emerging Ibiza 2014 DJ Competition Mix (Funky & Disco House) #2035363Participantmk-ultra as a dj name… smh..
Participantwell you already got a tonne of info about g2v & g4v (virtually identical) in your previous thread… could you have not simply added the slate 4 to the existing thread for comparison? just saying…
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